Michael Nielsen (one of my favorite Australian physicists) wrote an essay called “Maps of Matter”, which examines maps of matter, such as phylogenetic trees and the periodic table, to try and answer the question “What can we build, in principle?” (This summary doesn’t properly do it justice, please pause now and go read it)
Given that a brain, a bratwurst and a bicycle are all made out of protons, neutrons and electrons, this question of how we could “sculpt matter”1 (manipulating matter doesn’t feel right, and engineering matter doesn’t capture the artistry involved) has not left my mind for some time.
Here’s why it shouldn’t leave yours either:
I. Richard Feynman once analogized physics to observing a game of chess being played by the gods. Despite the fact that we haven’t been told the rules, through careful experimentation we’ve begun to figure out what’s going on in the game. Now, if we continue with this (rough) analogy, where our universe is like a game of chess, then the prospect of not just watching the game but being able to play is beautiful. Sculpture is scripture.
II. However, you cannot have a serious discussion about the future without addressing the elephant in the room: Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which roughly refers to a computer as “generally smart” as a human. Once AGI is developed, it will enable us to conquer many challenging problems in science. While this would be great for humanity, the question of “now what?” arises. Therefore, I am selfishly grateful for the problem of sculpting matter. Thanks to its absolutely massive search space and “I wasn’t quite expecting that emergent phenomena'' revelations, it will not be something that is easy nor quick to fully grasp, even if humanity reshaped the Milky Way into a massive supercomputer.
III. Yet, as I sit in my hotel room writing this, we are quite a far ways away from being able to reshape the Milky Way into a supercomputer. Yet, magically, this question is still of relevance in the present. Whether it’s curing diseases or fighting climate change, pushing what we can build with matter, often on the smallest scales, can be of civilizational importance outside of just its intellectual aesthetic. I’m currently quite excited by what we can do with proteins and other biological macromolecules, but this is just the beginning of the infinity I call sculpting matter. Please email me at jrin at stanford dot edu if you want to further discuss!
Sculpting also feels like the right word because, as Michelangelo remarked, “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” The potential was already latent within the matter, we just have to chisel it into the right form.